Hear, hear, ByTor. I would add that many of us don’t even realize that we’re being throttled by individualism—and perhaps don’t realize that many cultures around the world have no sense of such individualism as we find in America. Many Middle Eastern peoples, for example, think of themselves only in terms of their relationships—to spouses, parents, siblings—rather than who they are as individuals. If American culture were more community-oriented, perhaps the idea of socialism would be more palatable to us. Capitalism and individualism seem to be inherent in American society, which may make it more difficult for us to look at these “isms” objectively.
And on private ownership—I don’t think our great challenge, as Americans and Canadians (as Westerners, even), is fighting for private ownership. In Western society that’s assumed. A far more relevant challenge is to help those less fortunate than we, and I agree with SARAH, that we probably aren’t going to do that without some prodding. If we could trust our government to take a portion of our income and use it on people who really need it, why need that be a problem? (But I suppose that’s an idealistic viewpoint, and idealism has little to do with the actual workings of the government . . . )
Al
Feb 25 2003
03:16 pm
Hear, hear, ByTor. I would add that many of us don’t even realize that we’re being throttled by individualism—and perhaps don’t realize that many cultures around the world have no sense of such individualism as we find in America. Many Middle Eastern peoples, for example, think of themselves only in terms of their relationships—to spouses, parents, siblings—rather than who they are as individuals. If American culture were more community-oriented, perhaps the idea of socialism would be more palatable to us. Capitalism and individualism seem to be inherent in American society, which may make it more difficult for us to look at these “isms” objectively.
And on private ownership—I don’t think our great challenge, as Americans and Canadians (as Westerners, even), is fighting for private ownership. In Western society that’s assumed. A far more relevant challenge is to help those less fortunate than we, and I agree with SARAH, that we probably aren’t going to do that without some prodding. If we could trust our government to take a portion of our income and use it on people who really need it, why need that be a problem? (But I suppose that’s an idealistic viewpoint, and idealism has little to do with the actual workings of the government . . . )